A TEACHER was paid nearly £60,000 in compensation after slipping and falling on a school toilet floor.

The teacher at a Warwickshire school was left with neck and back injuries after the accident and claimed £59,522 in compensation from Warwickshire County Council.

The payout was the highest of 20 compensation payments made to Warwickshire teachers in the last five years because of accidents at work.

The total paid out was £237,870.

Figures obtained by the Telegraph also revealed that there were six payouts over the past five years to teachers injured at work in Coventry.

The highest was for £37,411.28 for an accident involving a wheelchair.

The total paid out for all six claims was £75,831.65.

The most common accidents to results in compensation payouts to teachers in Coventry and Warwickshire were falls. The next most common were injuries while moving equipment.

There were also two teachers injured by doors, one teacher injured when a chair collapsed, one with repetitive strain injury in the hand and one injured when a cupboard fell over. One was hit by an object falling from a cupboard.

Andy Summers, president of the National Union of Teachers in Warwickshire, said: “There is a risk of accidents such as these increasing because of the nature of the cuts being forced on schools.

“Sweeping decisions are being made about spending on cleaning and care taking and these are bound to prejudice safety on the site.

“The union will be keeping a close eye on safety.”

Victor Aguera, a Coventry secondary school teacher who is joint divisional secretary of the National Association of School Masters Union of Women Teachers, said: “It’s unfortunate that anybody gets injured at work but, given that there are about 3,000 teachers in the city, it’s not a bad figure.

“It shows that generally there is good practice going on in the city.

“It’s pleasing that in the last five years we haven’t had to go down the route of compensation for injuries because of assaults on teachers by pupils.

“The last time we had to do that was more than 10 years ago.”

The information was given to the Coventry Telegraph by Coventry City Council and Warwickshire County Council as a result of a request under the Freedom of Information Act,

Not all employees who have an accident at work can make successful claims for compensation.

Claims are only successful when employees can show that they suffered as a result of the accident and that in the run-up to the accident their employer ignored the risks.